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Lehigh Offense Explodes in Win over Detroit Mercy

from press release

BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Lehigh’s offense
erupted for a season high 21 goals, including a combined 12 in the
first and fourth quarters, as the Mountain Hawks rolled past
Detroit 21-9 on Monday afternoon at the Ulrich Sports
Complex. The 21 goals are Lehigh’s most since 1999 and
the win is Lehigh’s first at home since 2008. Cameron
Lao-Gosney led the Brown and White with five goals, while Alex
Drake scored four in helping Lehigh up its record to 3-4.
Joel Matthews found the back of the net four times for the Titans
who fall to 0-5.

“The weather in the game against Yale was similar to how it
is today,” Lao Gosney said afterwards. “But we
put our foot down and kept going and came away with the
win.” He continued, “We were challenged by the
coaching staff after losing to Yale and today we did a nice job of
bouncing back. We fought hard, we were aggressive with our
dodging and we kept trying to get to the goal.”

Lehigh unleashed a season best 44 shots on the afternoon and
Detroit was credited with 20. The game featured 26 combined
penalties and 36 combined turnovers. Junior Will Scudder did
a terrific job in the X for Lehigh, winning 16-of-19 and he also
scooped up eight ground balls. As a team Lehigh scooped up 32
ground balls and the Mountain Hawks also caused eight
turnovers. Freshman Dan Carr received the start in goal for
Lehigh and sent back six shots in 45 minutes of action before
giving way to Conor Murphy who stopped three shots in the fourth
quarter.

Detroit was credited with 20 shots for the game led by Matthews
with seven. Jordan Houtby and Chris Butts caused two
turnovers each and Houtby led the Titans with five ground
balls. A.J. Levell stopped ten shots in goal for the visitors
and Vince Diana stopped four.

“I was much prouder of our effort today,” head coach
Kevin Cassese explained. “I thought we played much
harder than we did over the weekend. This team still has a
lot to learn and needs to get some additional practice underneath
its belt. We have a lot of inexperienced guys and even our
upperclassmen aren’t that experienced. It’s a
learning experience for us. We need to continue to battle and
scrap, and out-work our opponent.”

He continued, “I thought our attack was the recipient of
unselfish play by our midfield. That position needs to have
guys who are unselfish in order for it to be successful and today
we had that. Our first midfield scored eight goals and handed
out three assists today and I thought they really stepped their
play up. They bounced back from the game against Yale because
that was not their best performance.”

Lehigh came out of the gate firing and raced out to a 5-0 lead
after one quarter on the strength of goals by Cameron Lao-Gosney,
Dante Fantoni, Brian Bienemann, Drake and Roman Lao-Gosney.
Scott Harris and Matthews opened the second with back-to-back goals
for Detroit, pulling the Titans within three, but Fantoni and Drake
responded with two straight scores for Lehigh to give the home team
a 7-2 lead with 8:48 left before halftime. Cameron Lao-Gosney
and Roman Lao-Gosney scored more goals for Lehigh as the Mountain
Hawks opened up a 9-3 advantage, but Detroit came back with three
straight scores to make it a 9-6 game. Unfazed, Lehigh
answered with goals by Drake and Cameron Lao-Gosney to take an 11-6
lead into halftime.

Just as they did in the first quarter the Mountain Hawks came out
strong in the third scoring three straight to go in front
14-6. Cameron Lao-Gosney, Fantoni and Johnston scored for
Lehigh before Detroit closed the quarter with a 3-0 run to make the
score 14-9 after three.

Lehigh completely dominated the final 15 minutes of play to leave
little doubt as to who would win the game. Cameron Lao-Gosney
got things started before Adam Johnston found the back of the net
with 12:09 to play, which made the score 16-9. Drake then
made it 17-9 with a score at the 8:05 mark before John Henry
McNierney and Taylor Castagna alternated scoring on four goals to
put the final margin at 21-9.

Lehigh now has over one week off to prepare for its next game
before returning to action on March 23 when the Mountain Hawks play
host to Army in a huge Patriot League showdown at home. The
opening face-off is set for 7:00 from the Ulrich Sports
Complex.

“Next week is huge for us,” Cassese said.
“We are halfway done with our season now and with two big
Patriot League games coming up this is a crucial stretch for us."